He always promised to make an end run around the Legislature when things didn't go his way, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking the concept to new heights in four closed-door budget deals with different constituent groups.

Though he insisted again Tuesday that the Democratic-controlled Legislature is a "full partner" in his bid to revive the economy and settle California's chronic budget problems, the Republican governor has behaved in a decidedly different manner.

Rather than propose an overall spending plan to the Legislature and then thrash it out during months of debate, negotiation and public hearings, he's picking off influential constituents one by one and making side deals.

Those deals still have to win legislative approval. But by settling big scores early with potentially troublesome constituencies, the novice governor is hoping to defuse fights that have bogged down the process in recent years, virtually guaranteeing budgets that were late and approved only after tremendous acrimony.

Critics call the strategy risky, saying the governor is making deals with the promise of money he cannot guarantee in future years.

"He's increasingly making the Legislature look like it's not necessary to the lives of Californians," Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute in Los Angeles, said Tuesday after the latest Schwarzenegger budget agreement was formally unveiled.

"But at the same time, he's mortgaging the future. Whether he'll be around for that future, we don't know."

The agreement announced Tuesday was between Schwarzenegger and California's two top university officials. The heads of the state's two public university systems pledged not to fight this year's proposed spending cuts in exchange for modest increases all the way to 2011.

Without any assurance that the money will be available or that Schwarzenegger will be around to help make it happen, the two university chiefs lavished praise on the higher education "compact."

They did so even as leaders of student and faculty groups ripped the agreement as too costly for current students and too painful for existing programs.

Democrats have aligned themselves with Schwarzenegger on a number of issues during his six months in office, but Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, called the latest arrangement a "backroom deal by three guys in suits. ... We expected more because he ran on being against backroom deals out of the light of day."

Asked at his Tuesday press conference how he could assure the increased spending for higher education would be available in the future, Schwarzenegger told reporters: "It will be there because we are seeing the forecast. ... We will be able to do that next year."

To Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides, it's all part of what he described as Schwarzenegger's strategy of pursuing immediate political gratification and worrying about details later.

"I'm mystified about the governor's approach," Angelides said at his own press conference an hour before Schwarzenegger's. "I'm mystified by why someone would come into office with so much political capital and squander it by trying to look good (rather) than by trying to do the right thing."

Schwarzenegger is making budget deals by promising future benefits to groups whose spending he wants to cut this year.

"The governor is making promises I don't know how he's going to fulfill or out of whose hide he's going to fulfill them. It's like a shell game," said Angelides, who has aspirations for the Governor's Office in 2006.

Schwarzenegger has outflanked members of his own GOP in the past, lining up Democratic votes to offset Republican opposition, for instance, when he pushed through his $15 billion deficit bond and balanced budget measure. But GOP leaders seemed to be enjoying the Schwarzenegger maneuver after years of feeling left out by Democratic budget deliberations.

Chico Republican Rick Keene, vice chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, said he believes the deals take the wind out of some Democrats' case for tax increases.

Democrats, Keene said, "are more concerned about the fact that they may not have lines of protesters like they tend to like to have when they want to raise taxes."

The quartet of deals Schwarzenegger has assembled are very different in each of their components. But a common thread binds them: Each involves promises of more money now or in future years, in exchange for swallowing some of his less palatable proposals.

His latest agreement is scheduled to be announced this morning at City Hall in Elk Grove.

Cities, counties, redevelopment agencies and special districts have agreed to accept $1.3 billion in cuts in each of the next two fiscal years. In exchange, the governor will campaign for a constitutional amendment that would permanently preserve local governments' share of state funding in years to come.

The agreement, like the others, is ultimately subject to the Legislature's blessing, something lawmakers have made clear is far from guaranteed. But the powerful governor's promise of protection in the future already has succeeded in quieting a vocal and powerful group's cries over his proposed budget cuts.

The strategy of budget side deals began even before Schwarzenegger released his January budget. He and the powerful California Teachers Association announced agreement on a set of proposed cuts for schools that would provide $2 billion less than guaranteed under Proposition 98's school finance rules. The payoff to teachers was promise of protection from further erosion of school funding.

Last week, Schwarzenegger announced an agreement with the state trial courts' top officials to call for more money for courts in exchange for help securing a place for the Governor's Office at the bargaining table with court workers' unions. Those unions were not party to the discussions with Schwarzenegger.

The higher education deal announced Tuesday has generated the most criticism. Student groups and faculty leaders denounced it as soon as it leaked out Monday. And Democrats in the Legislature, who so far have cooperated on most Schwarzenegger initiatives, are growing resentful about his wheeling and dealing - without them.

"Side deals made between the governor and various parties are agreements between them and are in no way binding on the Legislature," Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, said in a statement. "Unfortunately or fortunately, none of those making agreements vote on legislation."

The governor isn't trying to "box Democrats into a corner," Rob Stutzman, Schwarzenegger's communications director, said in response to a reporter's question.

"We're trying to lead," Stutzman said. "Governor Schwarzenegger was sent here to lead.

"The Legislature has complained for the past several budgets that they didn't have a governor that was engaged with them and then leading. So I'm sure that at the end of the day, they appreciate there's someone who's driving the ship of state because that's what had been lacking here for so long. That's what he's trying to do, and this is the manner in which he's trying to do it."